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All over Sri Lanka there is a sigh of relief. The electors of Sri Lanka defeated the ruling United National party in a most humiliating manner. No such defeat has ever been recorded in the history of Sri Lanka. In the presidential election held on November 9th, not only did the Peoples Alliance candidate Chandrika Kumaranatunga, won over 62% of the vote, her chief opponent, the candidate from the former ruling party lost in all electorates in the island except one. While there were many slogans spread during the elections, the most prominent one displayed by the peoples' alliance, exhibited in an attractive poster with Chandrika Kumarana-tunga's picture was "To end a period of murder vote for peoples alliance." A seventy year old southern trader described the electoral result as "a serious punishment for a grave crime."
The crime, indeed the crimes were very grave. Among the lists of crimes mass murder stands out prominently besides extreme ways of plundering the land and national resources. Much worse than the crimes is the machinery of terror, which was constructed during this time, as an integral part of the legal machinery. The law was reformed, during this time, to allow politicians and law enforcement officers to conspire to murder political opponents, carry out such conspiracies with the use of resources of the state and to erase evidence of such crimes. The criminal investigation machinery was transformed into a criminal machinery, which was used to perpetrate crimes against persons and property. The intricate link established between the underworld and the criminal investigators is also well-known. The law enforcement officers found new ways of being rich and powerful. As a result normal criminal investigation work suffered a tremendous set back. The following passage reflects the over all impact these changes in the legal machinery had on the minds of people.
What gives other men the right to take lives without reason, without cause and then to try to justify themselves in the eyes of the world, in the eyes of God?
I spend many hours thinking when people come like that, they are not going to go until they have accomplished their mission. They come to take and kill, and they are not going to go without the person they came for. They are so sure of themselves, they are so sure of their own protection that they do not hesitate to wake people up, ask them questions, threaten them, hold guns to their throats, to get information that they want.
They come with a purpose, they come as killers. If I had thought for one moment that they had come to take my son, I would have died there at the door, but I didn't suspect. They were not masked, they don't need to be masked. They didn't try to hide themselves from anybody, they came in the night, asking their way to our house. They are not frightened, they are there to frighten other people. They stood under the lamp and all the neighbours saw the man who stood under it. (Dr. Manorani Saravanamuttu, referring to the arrest and murder of her son Richard De Soyza, Article 19 Documentary, "Three Women Speak").
A quotation from a recent judgement (11 November 1994) of the Supreme Court points to the depths of the practical issues involved.
In the numerous cases this Court has held against police detention. In my recollection, there is not a single case in which an offender has been punished with dismissal or other serious punishment. The punishment generally has been a deferment of the increment or a transfer I recall one case where a reserve Sub Inspector was discontinued.
It is difficult to understand on what basis offending police officers are being dealt with leniently. In the circumstances, I do no wish to give any specific direction to the 5th respondent (Inspector General of Police) to take disciplinary action against the 1st to 4th respondents for the reason that this Court should not stultify[make a fool of] itself. (Justice Kularatne with Chief Justice G.P.S. De Silva and Justice Ramanathan agreeing in case of Madar Mohideen Nazar and others vs Nimal Bandara, Sub Inspector of Police and others. One of the respondents of this case was Frank De Silva, Inspector General of Police.)
The relationship between the higher law enforcement officers and lower ranking officers changed. Higher officers were either themselves involved in crimes or refused to carry out their supervisory functions regarding their subordinates. This had deep impact on the minds of the people, creating a suspicion that would be very hard to soothe and mitigate.
Peoples' Alliance promised to change this situation and that was one of the major reasons that contributed its victory. Since coming to power, the new government has taken many steps to show that it wants to honour its promises. The lifting of emergency in the South and lifting many restrictions in North, appointment of commissions to deal with detentions, disappearances from 1988 January, instituting prosecutions in some cases as Ambilipitiya children's murders that the former government refused to prosecute, are some of the examples of the government's good will. President Kumaranatunga and the Minister of Justice Prof. G.L Peiris enjoy public confidence and have evoked a sense of hope. A senior lecturer at the economic department at Sri Jayawardanapura University summed up the mood of the people in following words.
"A sense of hope is spread everywhere. The expectations are very high... This is perhaps the last chance for Sri Lanka [to get out of this mess]"
The big problem is whether the government has sufficient muscle to deal with its own law enforcement machinery and to enforce discipline.
Posted on 2001-08-27
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